1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for subject tracking among a plurality of images, and a recording medium storing the program for the subject tracking.
2. Description of Related Art
With respect to the technique of detecting a subject, such as a face, by template matching, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-171490 discloses a technique for reducing the operation quantity for subject detection, at the time of detecting a subject, by searching the vicinity of the position of the subject which is successfully detected at the last time.
The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-171490 is based on an assumption that changes of a position of a face, i.e. a subject, in the angle of view are not large. The technique, however, has a problem in which the accuracy of subject detection is reduced when a subject turns to another way in an angle of view—for example, when a face turns around, turns up, or the like—and it becomes impossible to appropriately track the subject among a plurality of images.